Optum Acquires Steward Health Care Group: Senator Markey Reports

TL/DR –

UnitedHealth Group’s subsidiary OptumCare is reportedly planning to buy Stewardship Health and the contracting Steward Health Care Network. The transaction, which involves two of the biggest medical providers in Massachusetts and the US, will be reviewed by the Health Policy Commission (HPC) for its potential impact on healthcare costs, quality, access, and equity. In addition, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will also examine the sale.

Stewardship Health Inc. and Steward Health Care Network Sale to OptumCare

UnitedHealth Group subsidiary, OptumCare, is set to acquire Stewardship Health Inc. and the Steward Health Care Network. The state health care officials have been notified of this potential transaction on Tuesday. This move hints at further transactions.

Optum Financial, based in Minnesota, has bought the physician group of Steward Health Care, according to a press release from Senator Ed Markey’s office.

Stewardship Health Inc. is the parent company of the Stewardship Health Medical Group Inc, employing primary care physicians and clinicians in nine states, as per the Health Policy Commission.

HPC Director David Seltz describes this as a major change involving two large medical providers, both locally and nationally. The proposal’s review by the HPC will examine health care costs, quality, access, and equity. Any potential sale will follow the HPC’s review and any concurrent reviews by state or federal antitrust authorities.

The HPC will assess the transaction’s potential impacts within 30 days of receiving all necessary information about the sale. If the sale significantly impacts health care costs and market functioning, the HPC may initiate a full Cost and Market Impact Review.

Steward’s financial hardships have drawn significant attention, with the future of its Massachusetts assets uncertain. Any transactions involving the sale of Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals would require a review by the HPC and the Determination of Need program at the Department of Public Health.

Democratic Sen. Ed Markey calls for a move away from Steward’s financial insecurity. He urges Optum to preserve and protect health care access in the Commonwealth by controlling costs and prioritizing patients and providers.

In its new notice of material change, Steward Operations Holdings LLC forecasts potential transactions concerning its acute care hospitals and other provider operations in the upcoming year.

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